Toddler negative affectivity and effortful control: Relations with parent-toddler conversation engagement and indirect effects on language.

Evidence that early parent-child conversation supports early language development suggests a need to understand factors that account for individual differences in parent-child conversation engagement. Whereas most studies focus on demographic factors, we investigated the role of toddler temperament in a longitudinal study of 120 economically strained families. Specifically, we investigated the degree to which toddlers' negative affectivity and effortful control, considered together as a composite reflecting challenging temperament, accounted for variability in parent-toddler conversation engagement, and whether the frequency of that engagement mediated associations between toddler temperament and toddler expressive language skills. Toddler challenging temperament (i.e., high negative affectivity and low effortful control) and parent-toddler conversation engagement were measured at 18 and 30 months. Toddler expressive language skills were measured at 18, 24, and 36 months. As expected, a path model indicated inverse relations between toddler challenging temperament and concurrent parent-toddler conversation engagement at both 18 and 30 months. Unexpectedly, there were no direct associations between toddler challenging temperament and toddler expressive language skills either concurrently or longitudinally. However, we found indirect effects of toddler challenging temperament on later toddler expressive language skills via parent-toddler conversation engagement. Findings highlight the importance of considering toddler temperamental characteristics in addition to family demographics as important factors that account for variability in parent-toddler conversation engagement.

What to Look for in Relationships: Development, inter-rater reliability, and initial validity estimates for a young child-caregiver relationship assessment.

Introduction: Observational assessments are important for understanding a range of behaviors and emotions in the young child-caregiver relationship. This paper provides initial data on a multidimensional assessment for professionals who work with young children and their caregivers, the What to Look for in Relationships (WLR). The WLR was designed to assist providers in evaluating strengths and areas for improvement in five areas of young child-caregiver relationship dimensions. This paper reports on the development, interrater reliability, initial convergent and discriminant validity, and incremental utility of the scales. Methods: Data were collected from caregiver-child dyads, who participated in a semi-structured observational caregiver-child interaction session as part of a clinic evaluation for relationship-based therapeutic services for young children in child protection. Recorded interactions were coded using the WLR scales with 146 interactions coded by at least two independent observers for interrater reliability analyses. Results: The scales showed adequate internal consistency, good inter-rater reliability, strong convergent associations with a single dimension measure (i.e., the Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale; PIR-GAS) and discriminated those in the clinical range from those with adaptive functioning on the PIR-GAS. Discussion: This study provides initial support for the usefulness of the WLR scales for assessing dimensions of caregiver-child relationships during early childhood that may be useful targets of intervention.

Toddler negative emotion expression and parent-toddler verbal conversation: Evidence from daylong recordings.

Although early emotional and verbal development are thought to be related, emotional and verbal parent-toddler communication are often studied separately, and are frequently measured during brief, semi-structured tasks. Moreover, there is mixed, indirect evidence as to whether toddler negative emotions may elicit or disrupt parent-toddler verbal communication. To address these gaps, the present study used a wearable audio-recording and processing technology, Language Environment Analysis (LENA; Xu, Yapanel, & Gray, 2009), to sample full-day communication between twenty-five parents and their toddlers (12-23 months). We examined the extent to which toddler vocal negative emotion expressions ("cries"), relative to toddler (pre)-verbal vocalizations or adult speech, initiated, occurred within, or terminated parent-toddler conversation. We found that most (60%) toddler cries were involved in parent-toddler conversation. Toddler cries were unlikely to initiate conversations and, unexpectedly, were unlikely to terminate conversation. Conversations were most often initiated by toddler vocalizations and terminated by adult speech. Findings highlight the importance of measuring both emotional and verbal aspects of parent-toddler communication and the benefit of using sampling techniques that capture communication processes as they unfold in daily life.

The importance of adverse childhood experiences during the perinatal period.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study (Felitti et al., 1998) has led to an understanding of how exposure to abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction in childhood are related to subsequent physical and mental health problems. These issues are important to consider during the perinatal period, with studies indicating that pregnant women who report adverse experiences in childhood may be at risk of experiencing mental health and substance use problems. This study examined the association of pregnant women's ACEs with symptoms of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and substance use, and examined the potential buffering effect of women's resilience against the deleterious effects of ACES on mental health and substance use. Women reported on ACES, mental health symptoms, substance use, and resilience when they were screened for participation in a perinatal psychosocial support intervention, which was integrated into obstetrical clinics in a Southern academic medical center. Almost a quarter of the 303 women in this sample reported four or more ACEs, indicating significant risk. Those reporting more overall ACEs also reported more symptoms of depression, posttraumatic stress, and increased risk of tobacco use. Unique effects of specific ACEs subtypes were also found. Women exposed to child maltreatment reported more anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and were at risk for tobacco, cannabis, or opioid use during pregnancy. Women exposed to household dysfunction reported more posttraumatic stress symptoms and were at increased risk of tobacco and alcohol use during pregnancy. Women's resilience attenuated effects of household dysfunction on posttraumatic stress symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Toddler emotion expressions and emotional traits: Associations with parent-toddler verbal conversation.

The present study examines how toddler emotions may influence their own or their parents' participation in parent-toddler verbal conversation. Limited, indirect evidence suggests that toddler positive emotions may encourage, whereas negative emotions may disrupt, parent-toddler verbal exchanges, but these hypotheses have not been tested directly. We investigated two aspects of toddler emotions- their emotion expressions and their emotional traits- and examined their relations with parent-toddler verbal conversation engagement. In a sample of families with 18-month-olds (N = 120), we used live, unstructured home observations of toddler emotion expressions and spontaneous parent-toddler verbalizations, and collected parent ratings of toddler temperament. We found that less surgent toddlers who expressed more frequent negative emotion attempted fewer verbalizations. Among all toddlers, those expressing positive emotion received more frequent parent verbal responses, and, unexpectedly, more failed parent attempts to engage their toddler in conversation. Parent-initiated conversation was unrelated to toddler emotion expressions or emotional traits. We discuss how best to integrate the study of early emotional and language development from a transactional perspective.

Sequences of toddler negative emotion and parent-toddler verbal communication during a waking day.

Although the second year of life is characterized by dramatic changes in expressive language and by increases in negative emotion expression, verbal communication and emotional communication are often studied separately. With a sample of twenty-five one-year-olds (12-23 months), we used Language Environment Analysis (LENA; Xu, Yapanel, & Gray, 2009, Reliability of the LENA™ language environment analysis system in young children's natural home environment. LENA Foundation) to audio-record and quantify parent-toddler communication, including toddlers' vocal negative emotion expressions, across a full waking day. Using a multilevel extension of lag-sequential analysis, we investigated whether parents are differentially responsive to toddlers' negative emotion expressions compared to their verbal or preverbal vocalizations, and we examined the effects of parents' verbal responses on toddlers' subsequent communicative behavior. Toddlers' negative emotions were less likely than their vocalizations to be followed by parent speech. However, when negative emotions were followed by parent speech, toddlers were most likely to vocalize next. Post hoc analyses suggest that older toddlers and toddlers with higher language abilities were more likely to shift from negative emotion to verbal or preverbal vocalization following parent response. Implications of the results for understanding the parent-toddler communication processes that support both emotional development and verbal development are discussed.